Philips RD0525C 5 in. Portable TV

We bought this TV to take camping with us. Sometimes on the weekends we really want to see something, but didn't want to get anything big and bulky. We looked at the Sony Watchmans, RCAs, Casios and some cheapies, like GPX.

We decided on this one for a couple of reasons, first, the screen was significantly bigger than the others mentioned, measuring in at 5", which was double our runner up's size (Sony FDL252T). Also, while the Sony was ultra portable, it focused more on one person viewing instead of family viewing.

Thoughts on what ruled out the competition:
RCA-Many Epinions said that the display simply died after a few months. Didn't want that.
Casio-Sound was terrible on most that we saw, except the 660, which was decent. Eats batteries quickly, and power adapters and accessories would have taken the price well over 200.
GPX-Amazon.com reviews said that they blew up or stopped working completely, though they were decent while they were working.

The Philips was on display at Best Buy, and we were impressed with the picture since it was inside a metal warehouse type building with just it's antenna getting a signal. The display model's antenna was broken, but the picture still came in good. We didn't like the fact that the antenna was broken, possibly an omen, but upon further inspection, I found that it's a typical metal antenna that could be easily replaced at Radio Shack, maybe even replaced with a longer one for better signal. The only downfall was that it wouldn't run on pure battery power, but since it ran on a car battery, we bought an extension to the cigarette lighter adapter so we could watch outside of the Explorer.

Upon getting it home, I was disappointed to see that I couldn't get any channels to come in. Then I remembered that when we moved into our house, none of our other TVs could get signals either, due to the fact that we live right next to an airport.

So we took it camping not knowing what to expect, and it worked great. We only picked up three channels, but that was due more to being in the boonies than anything to do with the TV. One of the stations was NBC and it came in absolutely perfect. If the signal started to stray, an antenna move fixed it quickly, though once you found the right spot, you didn't have to move it any more. It also rained very hard and we picked up signal fine during that time too.

Then controls are very simplistic, and I was happy to see that the volume controls were digital, meaning no squeaky volume knob that deteriorated over time. The carrying handle built into the case worked well. I didn't test the audio or video inputs, though that's a nice feature. It also has an external antenna jack for 300 ohm (I believe) antennas. There are also picture adjustment knobs on the back which I didn't need to use, it looked pretty good right out of the box. I haven't said much about the picture, but I don't really have to, it's great.

Some cons:
The option to run on only battery power isn't available, but you can do DC through a car lighter adapter. Both AC and DC adapters are included, which a lot of the other TVs we looked at didn't have.

The metal antenna may break or get bent.

Some pros:
Sound quality. We actually had to turn it down a few times so as not to disturb other campers. The speaker is on the front and projects towards you, which is much better than having it on a random side where the sound isn't aimed at the people listening.

Earphone jack, though I believe it's mono, but you could get an adapter to split the mono to two channels so you could use headphones.

Picture. Simply great. Nothing negative to say about it. Well, I guess you could scratch the plastic cover over the glass screen, but that's probably the user's fault more than Philips.

Ok, there's my disjointed review. We're happy with our purchase, and now we can see our sporting events and TV shows on camping weekends instead of hearing about it from other people.